Trinamul leader threat on ECL official

ABHIJEET CHATTERJEE

Raniganj, Sept. 26: A Trinamul leader in Raniganj has lodged a police complaint allegedly accusing an Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) official of badmouthing the chief minister.

The Trinamul youth leader, Sanjit Mukherjee, also allegedly threatened ECL official A.K. Panda, who had protested forcible stoppage of work, that he would meet the same fate as Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra.

Mukherjee lodged a police complaint alleging that Panda had told him during a workers’ protest at the colliery in JK Nagar last week that “jemon tomader didi temoni tomra (you are like your leader)”.

Panda refused comment, saying he was traumatised.

But Damodar Banerjee, the general secretary of Coal Mines Officers’ Association of India, said: “Panda is scared. He told me that the Trinamul leader falsely accused him of badmouthing the chief minister and threatened him that he would meet the same fate as Mahapatra.”

On Friday, Panda had lodged an FIR against Mukherjee accusing him of stopping work at the mine and demanding that the company repair a road damaged by plying of heavy ECL trucks. After Panda lodged a police complaint, he was forced by the Trinamul leader to withdraw it.

Mukherjee said: “Panda is working at the behest of the CPM to malign Trinamul.”

Asked why the Trinamul leader was not arrested even though Panda lodged another FIR against him, district police chief Ajay Nand said: “It is not compulsory to arrest everybody whose names are in the FIR. We have started investigation.”